All posts tagged bad

This was taken on my morning walk about two weeks ago. Believe it or not I see a certain appeal in scenes like this. I like tree silhouettes and I’ve always liked fog – it’s as though a blanket has been spread over everything and sound becomes strangely muffled. It’s almost comforting in a way. Have you ever noticed how sound changes, depending upon atmospheric conditions? (…Ooh hello…the geek in me emerges again).

Well, fog is fine and tree silhouettes can be pretty but my heart still sings when I’m in the sunshine. I’m impatient for spring (as if you hadn’t already guessed) and it occurred to me to do at least one, but maybe more Yin Yang type blog entries: what I’m seeing most of the time and what I see occasionally, or would like to see, i.e. those little bursts of sun that top up the Happy Tank and keep me motoring on to the warmer weather.

So my second photo to restore the Yin Yang balance was taken this December in Florida. It’s of early morning sunshine streaming through the venetian blinds of our house and reflected in a glass-topped table. I called it ‘Just What the Doctor Ordered’. I wonder why? ;)

What a fabulous example Joan Collins sets to all of us women. She looks after herself and maintains the image of old Hollywood with utmost elegance. I believe she will be 77 this year – she looks just fabulous and has so much to teach younger women about good grooming and grace.

I was looking through an article at the Mail Online today, covering this year’s Royal Ascot race meetings and apart from the lady on the left here, who I think looks very elegant, and a couple of other exceptions, I thought most outfits were at best dull, with a couple of downright bloopers. (Swags and tucks of shiny material draped like Austrian blinds across your bum are never a good look). Then there are the usual silly hats – they’re for fun, I know, and good for grabbing Press attention to be sure, so I suppose it is at least mission accomplished there.

Maybe I’ve just woken up in a curmudgeonly mood**, or maybe it was a bad article, not really representative of what was on show, but few people stood out as really looking ‘bon chic bon genre’. There just seem so few occasions to really dress up and wear our finest clothes and Royal Ascot is definitely one such occasion, so why not go all out to look your best?

I’m not at all sure what this last outfit is trying to say. Well, that’s not entirely true – I know what it’s saying to me. (How to look a bit daft in one easy lesson). Was I right? This is Miss England, Katrina Hodge.

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**And in other news…..

Maybe I’m being curmudgeonly because of England’s pretty dreadful performance at the World Cup last night. (Two hours of my life that I will never get back). Wayne Rooney needn’t be snarky because the team were booed at the end – those fans have paid a huge amount of money to go and support their team and the team’s playing was lacklustre and poor. I’m not watching the next [and final?] match. It’s just too painful and honestly, I can think of more exciting things to do with my time (…like changing the kitty litter).

In looking through the papers this morning I came across the following which made me think of the title of that spaghetti western – ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”.

We all have unflattering photos taken of ourselves that usually hit the bin at the first opportunity – and don’t you find it interesting that when you see a photo of yourself, you see yourself in a different light? Well I do anyway. It’s just like when you catch a glimpse of yourself reflected in a shop window and think: ‘Gosh, is that really me?’ The person reflected in the mirror at home just doesn’t quite look the same.

Then there are the happy instances, when the camera catches you in a moment of joy, you were wearing your prettiest outfit and the late afternoon light is giving you an almost ethereal glow. Sadly, I don’t have enough of those…although it’s amazing what a little Photoshopping can do to even very poor images nowadays! Imagine then if you are a celebrity. Good and bad pictures abound and you have no control over them. Is it any wonder that celebrities can be quite delicate and insecure souls?

The first photo is one that I love. Oh how I would love a photo of me looking like this – old-fashioned glamour and style, delicate and pretty. I bet she asked the photographer for her own copy of this:

The Good – Christina Aguilera

The second is David Beckham. David is a handsome bloke but what the heck is with all the ink? The fact that his arms are now completely smothered is bad enough. Now, with his latest addition on the right of his torso, it looks as though his body may well be is the next part of the canvas to be completely filled. Enough already!

The Bad – David Beckham

Then there is Donatella Versace. She has always intrigued me. Her brother had such innate style. Yet Donatella has always looked …’unusual’.

The Ugly – Donatella Versace

This is a particularly bad image of DV but I can’t help feeling that a little less time under the sun lamps, less eye make up and better hair colour (and style) wouldn’t go amiss.

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You can see these and more celebrity sightings over at the Daily Telegraph.

We’re pretty much ‘snowed in’ here. As the most southerly point in Britain, this actually means that there is a light dusting of snow. For those of you with two foot of snow lumped against your front door, you may want to look away now.

This was my terrace, early yesterday evening. Yes, I know. You’re positively underwhelmed.

There has been a fair amount of discussion over the last 48 hours about why it is that the merest hint of a snowflake sends Britain flurrying into a grinding panic because, for the most part, we don’t even know what real snow is – for that try heading north to Helsinki, a place where reindeer roam free and, I’m told, the airport stays open all winter long.

However it’s unfair to label us in Britain, as has been done by some of our own media, as a bunch of malingerers. Sure there is some skiving going on, but there is a reason why at least some of us fail to show up at work.

Take here for example. Those who live on the island’s ‘balmy’ and mostly flat south coast are starting to look askance at those of us who live in the ‘inhospitable north’, up a hill, when we complain that we were unable to make it into work first thing. The problem with any snow covering here in the UK generally is not the snow as such, but the ice that forms when it compacts. None of us have snow chains or snow tyres. Why would we when snow is such a rarity and so such things would only languish, year on year, gathering dust at the back of the garage? Our problem at the moment is dangerous black ice and that is very much more of an issue for anyone who has to negotiate an incline on little used country roads. Yesterday I watched a dangerous pattern emerging: snow fall, a slight melt, re-freeze, fresh snowfall then rinse and repeat. So no, my photo doesn’t look impressive but it is creating ridiculous disruption and concern.

~

I usually keep things like recipes for my other WordPress site but since we all seem to be freezing our buns off at the moment I thought I’d refer to one of my favourite cold weather comfort foods – something that I happily snaffled for my lunch today and poo to the diet guilt in this cold snap. I love cheese but God has decreed that hot cheese shall be totally irrestible, both in smell and taste, to all but the steeliest-willed skinniest of skinnies.

I have quick combos that I love on a cold day: toast one side of the bread under the grill then spread the other with tomato puree (paste), good grated strong Cheddar (the real thing, not that plastic muck that tries to pass itself off as Cheddar) and sprinkle on some dried oregano. Pop back under the grill and cook until the cheese is melting and just starting to brown. Voila! Pizza Bread! :) I’ve successfully substituted a scraping of Sacla red pesto and then cheese when I don’t have tomato puree (making a kind of Basil-ly pizza bread. Mmmmmm…). And for true connoisseurs of the Toast and Cheese Tasters Guild nothing can compare to a scraping ofMarmite and then the grated cheese (although if you haven’t tried Marmite before you may want to take it easy with that one – Marmite truly is a product that you either love or hate. It has been known to make grown men cry).

Purists, however, will undoubtedly prefer to go through the extra kerfuffle of making proper Welsh Rarebit (also called Welsh Rabbit, although of course no rabbits are actually harmed in the making of it). Lovely, but I’m normally too much of a gannet to muck around and do things ‘properly’. Here, however is the authentic recipe for this English (well…Welsh) classic:

Welsh rarebit (Serves 4)

(By the way, the phrase Welsh rabbit was coined in the 18th century to describe this cheese on toast. Some believe it was invented when the Welsh wives spied their menfolk returning empty-handed from the hunt and had to melt cheese as a substitute for game).

Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce (optional) – a few drops of each may be added to the mixture

4 slices of good bread, white or brown, lightly toasted and buttered

Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Mix the finely grated cheese with the butter, breadcrumbs, mustard and egg. Beat well, season with salt and pepper to taste and spread thickly on buttered toast. Cook in the oven until golden brown (5-10 minutes).

There is a yin and yang balance to life, if you choose to look for it. Just lately I’ve been in pain – a finger joint on my left hand has finally succumbed to arthritis. It’s been on the move for the last year or more, the joint slowly swelling, but in the last week has begun to painfully throb.

Under the weather

Do you have arthritis? If not, count yourself lucky. Rather unfairly at my age, I think, I now have two points in my body that are affected: in my left foot – the searing arthritic pain of which is currently on several years’ sabbatical, thank the Lord (but the effect of which has left me with a misshapen foot), and now my left hand. What is particularly frustratring me is that it would be my left hand, wouldn’t it? That’s my fully functioning hand. If it was my right hand it would rarely be used and so the swollen joint wouldn’t be accidentally and continually knocked, and I wouldn’t be noticing how it now hurts every time I even bend my fingers (which, in the case of my left hand is, not surprisingly, very often).

Still, I count myself lucky that it’s merely a finger joint and not a hip or an entire arm that is in arthritic agony (that would be a real stinker).

I’d just managed to again painfully bash my hand against the furniture while cleaning yesterday when the phone rang. The caller purported to be from the company that I tend to buy my shoes from. (I say ‘purported’ because I don’t seea scam here but you never can tell nowadays) . They said that as a subscriber to their newsletter my name had been entered into a competition to win shoes for the next year and that my name had been drawn as the winner. Winging its’ way to me shortly via Recorded Delivery will be hundreds of Pounds worth of vouchers to cover shoes for every season – from January through to December. How cool is that? Of course I am not a shoe fettishist like other members of my family, and it just so happens that I have only just bought enough shoes to last me for the next year (at least) but, hey, I’m not complaining! I’m on the winning side! I was seriously thinking that this year would be marked only by one ‘money out’ situation after another yet the other day I won £25 on the Premium Bonds [woohoo] and now I’ve won a whole load of shoe vouchers. Could this be a turn in the financial tide? That would be nice.

So there. The yin and the yang balance at work: I am in physical pain but at least I’ll have plenty of pretty new shoes to distract me and with my current winning streak, who knows? Perhaps I’m in line for a big lottery win!

I’ve heard that the noise of leaf blowers drives people up the wall in the U.S. We don’t tend to use those things over here in the U.K. (a rake will do us) but I’m assuming that the dreaded leaf blower is mostly a problem reserved for the months of Fall.

If you’re afflicted with a leaf blowing maniac next door, spare a thought for little me please. Our neighbours moved in two years ago and on every single [dry] weekend, without fail, the man of the house is out there in the garden either with a chainsaw or strimmer. All. Day. Long. Yes his garden looks quite nice and that is way, way better than leaving it to go to rack and ruin, but perleese how much wood can one man find to chop, how much grass can one man rustle up to strim? Give me a break already!

This recipe was advertised on my Googlemail page and just the title made me click on it. I had no idea that people still ate Spam let alone a ‘French Fry and Spam Casserole’ (with a few crushed cornflakes in there for good measure)!

Actually this inspires me to start collecting the worst sounding recipes I can find. At some point I may (may, I say) actually try them to see if they really do taste as bad as they sound. Anyone want to contribute? Genuine recipes only (together with a note of the source if you can).

Here is the recipe for Spam and French Fry Casserole, as listed at recipesource.com. Try it – I dare you.